Warf ieU  Librae 


THE  NEW  DEPARTURE 


COLLEGE    EDUCATION 


BEING    A    REPLY    TO    PRESIDENT  ELIOT'S 
DEFENCE  OF  IT  IN  NEW  YORK 

FEB.  24,  1885  /'^^^^  ^^^^^( 

DEC  17\n\ 

JA3IES ^McCOSH,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  D.L. 

PEE8IDENT  OF  PBINCSTTON  COLLEGE 


LB2363 
.M\3 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1885 


VV    6frAXAV«w» 


THE  WE¥  DEPARTURE 


^J 


OLLEGE    EDUCATION 


BEING    A    REPLY    TO    PRESIDENT   ELIOT S 

DEFENCE  OF  IT  IN  NEW  YORK 

FEB,  24,  1885 


^  DEC  l7i'^'^o      ; 


/i 


/ 


JAJVIES  McCOSH,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  D.L. 

PRESIDKNT  OF  PBINCETON  COLLEGE 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1885 


CopraiGHT,  1S85,  BY 
CHARLES   SCRIBNEU'S  SONS 


TROW'8 

PRINTIHG  AND  BOOKBINDING  COMFANVj 

NEW  lORK. 


THE   NEW   DEPARTURE   IN   COLLEGE 
EDUCATION. 


I  HAVE  been  drawn  into  this  three-cornered  debate  '  by 
no  merit  or  demerit  of  mine.  I  was  told  by  the  ^Nineteenth 
Century  Club  that  the  President  of  Harvard  was  to  advo- 
cate what  was  called  his  "  new  departure,"  and  I  was  invited 
to  criticize  it.  I  have  noticed  with  considerable  anxiety 
thatdepartui'c  as  going  on  for  years  past  without  parents  or 
the  public  noticing  it.  I  am  glad  that  things  have  come  to 
a  crisis.  Fathers  and  mothers  and  the  fi'iends  of  education 
will  now  know  what  is  j^i'oposed,  what  is  in  fact  going  on, 
and  will  have  to  decide  forthwith  whether  they  are  to  fall 
in  with  and  encourage  it,  or  are  to  oppose  it. 

I  asked  first  what  the  question  was.  President  Eliot 
has  shaped  it  as  follows:  "In  a  university  the  student 

MUST  CHOOSE  HIS    STUDIES  AND    GOVEKN    IimSELF."       I  SaW^  at 

once  that  the  question  thus  announced  was  large  and  loose, 
vagne  and  ambiguous,  plausible  to  the  ear,  but  with  no 
definite  meaning.  Put  it  commits  its  author  to  a  positive 
position  and  gives  me  room  to  defend  a  great  and  good 
cause.     The  form  is  showy  but  I  can  expose   it ;   I  can 

'  The  Nineteenth  Century  Club  meant  to  make  the  dehate  three- 
cornered,  but  sonieliow  one  of  the  sides  of  the  triand^  fell  ont,  and  in- 
stead of  a  triangle  we  have  two  sides  facin;^  each  other. 


4  THE   NEW   DEPARTURE 

prick  the  bubble  so  that  all  may  know  how  little  matter  is 
inside. 

On  the  one  hand  I  am  sorry  that  the  defence  of  solid 
and  high  education  should  have  devolved  on  me  rather 
than  on  some  more  gifted  advocate.  But  on  the  other 
hand  I  feel  it  to  be  a  privilege  that  I  am  invited  to  oppose 
proposals  which  are  fitted,  without  the  people  as  yet  seeing 
it,  to  throw  back  in  America  (as  Bacon  expresses  it)  "  The 
Advancement  of  Learning." 

1  will  not  allow  any  one  (without  protest)  to  charge  me 
with  being  antiquated,  or  old-fashioned,  or  behind  the  age 
— I  may  be  an  old  man  but  I  cherish  a  youthful  spirit. 
For  sixteen  years  I  was  a  professor  in  the  youngest  and 
one  of  the  most  advanced  universities  in  Great  Britain, 
and  I  have  now  been  sixteen  years  in  an  American  college, 
and  in  both  I  have  labored  to  elevate  the  scholarship.  I 
act  on  the  principle  that  every  new  bi*anch  of  what  has 
shown  itself  to  be  true  learning  is  to  be  introduced  into  a 
college.  My  friends  in  America  have  encouraged  me  by 
generously  giving  me  millions  of  money  to  carry  out  this 
idea.  I  am  as  much  in  favor  of  progress  as  President 
Eliot,  but  I  go  on  in  a  different,  I  believe  a  better  way.  I 
adopt  the  new,  I  retain  what  is  good  in  the  old.  I  am  dis- 
appointed, I  am  grieved  when  I  find  another  course  pur- 
sued which  allows,  which  encourages,  which  tempts  young 
men  in  their  caprice  to  choose  easy  subjects,  and  which  are 
not  fitted  to  enlarge  or  refine  the  mind,  to  produce  scholars, 
or  to  send  forth  the  great  body  of  the  students  as  educated 
gentlemen. 

Freedom  is  the  catch-word  of  this  new  departure.  It 
is  a  precious  and  an  attractive  word.  But,  O  Liberty  !  what 
crimes  and  cruelties  have  been  perpetrated  in  thy  name ! 
It  is  a  bid  for  popularity.  An  entering  Freshman  will  be 
apt  to  cheer  when  he  hears  it — the  prospect  is  so  pleasant. 


IlSr   COLLEGE   EDUCATIO]^.  5 

The  leader  in  this  departure  will  have  many  followers. 
The  student  infers  from  the  language  that  he  can  study 
what  he  pleases.  I  can  tell  you  what  he  will  possibly  or 
probably  choose.  Those  who  are  in  the  secrets  of  colleges 
know  how  skilful  certain  students  are  in  choosing  their  sub- 
jects. They  can  choose  the  branches  which  will  cost  them 
least  study,  and  put  themselves  under  the  popular  professors 
who  give  them  the  highest  grades  with  the  least  labor.  I 
once  told  a  student  in  an  advanced  stage  of  his  course,  "  If 
you  had  shown  as  much  skill  in  pursuing  your  studies  as 
in  choosing  the  easiest  subjects  you  would  have  been  the 
first  man  in  your  class."  I  am  for  freedom  quite  as  much 
as  Dr.  Eliot  is,  but  it  is  for  freedom  regulated  by  law.  I 
am  for  liberty  but  not  licentiousness,  which  always  ends 
in  servitude. 

I  am  to  follow  the  President  of  Harvard  in  the  three 
roads  which  he  has  taken  ;  placing  positions  of  mine  face 
to  face  with  his  : 

I.  Freedom  in  choosing  studies. 
II.  Freedom  in  choosing  specialties. 
III.  Freedom  in  government. 


Freedom  in  Choosing  Studies. — I  am  for  freedom,  but  it 
must  be  within  carefully  defined  limits.  First,  a  young 
man  should  be  free  to  enter  a  university  or  not  to  enter 
it.  He  is  to  be  free  to  choose  his  department  in  that  uni- 
versity, say  Law  or  Medicine,  or  the  Academic  terminating 
in  the  Bachelor  or  Master's  Degree.  But,  having  made 
liis  choice,  is  he  to  have  all  possible  freedom  ever  after? 
At  this  point  the  most  liberal  advocate  of  liberty  will  be 
obliged  to  tell  the  student,  "  We  are  now  required  to  lay 


6  THE   NEW   DEPARTURE 

some  restraints  upon  yon,"  and  tlie  yontli  finds  his  liberty 
is  at  an  end.  He  lias  to  take  certain  stndies  and  give  a 
certain  amount  of  time  to  them,  say,  according  to  the  Har- 
vard model,  to  select  four  topics.  He  goes  in  for  Medi- 
cine :  he  may  make  his  quartette  Physical  Geography, 
which  tells  Avhat  climate  is ;  and  Art,  which  teaches  us  to 
paint  the  human  frame ;  and  Music,  which  improves  the 
voice ;  and  Lectures  on  the  Drama,  which  show  us  how  to 
assume  noble  attitudes.  These  seem  more  agreeable  to 
him  than  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  than  Surgery  and  Ma- 
teria Medica,  which  present  corpses  and  unpleasant  odors. 
I  tell  you  that,  though  this  youth  should  get  a  diploma 
written  on  parchment,  I  would  not,  however  ill,  call  him 
in  to  prescribe  to  me,  as  I  might  not  be  quite  sure  whether 
his  medicines  would  kill  or  cure  me.  Or  the  intention  of 
the  youth  is  Engineering  in  order  to  make  or  drive  a 
steam  engine,  and  he  does  not  take  Mathematics,  or  Me- 
chanics, or  Graphics,  or  Geodesy  ;  but  as  unlimited  choice 
is  given  him,  he  prefers  drawing  and  field  work — when 
the  weather  is  fine,  and  two  departments  of  gymnas- 
tics— now  so  well  taught  in  our  colleges — namely,  box- 
ing and  wrestling.  I  tell  you  I  am  not  to  travel  by 
the  railway  he  has  constructed.  But  he  has  a  higher 
aim :  he  is  to  take  a  course  in  the  Liberal  Arts  and 
expects  a  Master's  Degree ;  but  Greek  and  Mathematics 
and  Physics  and  Mental  Philosophy  are  all  old  and  waxing 
older,  and  he  takes  French  to  enable  him  to  travel  in  Eu- 
rope, and  Lectures  on  Goethe  to  make  liim  a  German 
scholar,  and  a  Pictorial  History  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV., 
and  of  the  Theatre  in  ancient  and  modern  times.  This 
is  a  good  year's  work,  and  he  can  take  a  like  course  in 
each  of  the  four  years ;  and  if  he  be  in  Yale  or  Princeton 
College,  he  will  in  Spring  and  Fall  substitute  Base  Ball 
and  Foot  Ball,  and  exhibit  feats  more  wonderful  than 


IN   COLLEGE   EDUCATION.  7 

were  ever  performed  in  the  two  classical  countries,  Greece 
and  Rome,  at  their  famous  Olympian  Games  and  Bull 
Fights. 

I  have  presented  this  designedly  rude  picture  to  show 
that  there  must  be  some  limits  put  to  the  freedom  of 
choice  in  studies.  The  able  leader  of  the  new  departure, 
with  the  responsibilities  of  a  great  College  upon  him,  and 
the  frank  and  honest  gentleman,  who  has  such  a  dread  of 
a  Fetish — -the  creature  of  his  own  imagination — will  be 
ready  to  admit  that  in  every  department  of  a  University 
there  should  be  a  well  considered  and  a  well  devised  cur- 
riculum of  study.  It  is  one  of  the  highest  and  most  im- 
portant functions  of  the  governing  bodies  to  construct  such 
a  scheme.  It  should  have  in  it  two  essential  powers  or 
properties. 

First,  there  should  he  branches  required  of  all  students 
ivho  pursue  the  full  course  and  seeJc  a  degree.  This  is 
done  in  such  departments  as  Engineering  and  Medicine 
and  should  be  done  in  Arts.  The  obligatory  branches 
should  be  wisely  selected.  They  should  all  be  litted  to 
enlarge  or  refine  the  mind.  They  should  be  fundamental, 
as  formiuii;  the  basis  on  which  other  knowledo'e  is  built. 
They  should  be  disciplinary,  as  training  the  mind  for 
further  pursuits.  Most  of  them  should  have  stood  the 
test  of  time  and  reared  scholars  in  ages  past.  There  will 
be  found  to  be  a  wonderful  agreement  among  educated 
men  of  high  tastes  as  to  what  these  should  be. 

There  should  be  included  in  them  the  eight  studies  on 
which  examinations  are  held  in  order  to  entrance  into 
Harvard  College.  These  are  1,  English;  2,  Greek;  3, 
Latin ;  4,  German  ;  5,  Frencli ;  6,  History ;  7,  Mathe- 
matics ;  8,  Physical  Science.  This  is  the  scheme  of  pre- 
paratory studies  just  issued  by  Harvard.  It  seems  to  me 
to  require  too  much   from   our  schools.     It  will  prevent 


8  THE   NEW   DEPARTURE 

many  teachers  who  have  hitherto  sent  students  to  college 
from  doing  so  anj  more.  Teachers  in  smaller  towns 
and  country  districts  will  have  to  look  to  this.  If  the 
scheme  is  carried  out  fewer  young  men  will  come  up  to 
our  colleges  from  such  places.  They  will  find  that  they 
cannot  get  French  and  German  and  physical  apparatus  in 
the  schools  available  to  them.  Some  of  the  branches  had 
better  be  reserved  for  college,  where  they  will  be  taught 
more  effectively.  But  passing  this  by  as  not  just  to  our 
present  point,  I  put  all  these  cardinal  studies  in  the 
branches  which  should  be  required  in  a  college. 

In  the  farther  courses  of  a  college  other  obligatory 
studies  should  be  added,  such  as  Biology,  including  Botany 
and  Zoology,  Geology,  Political  Economy  or  better  Social 
Science,  and  at  least  three  branches  of  Mental  Science, 
Psychology,  Logic,  and  Ethics.  All  these  by  a  wise  ar- 
rangement could  be  taught  in  the  three  or  four  years  at 
school  and  the  four  years  of  college.  They  should  be 
judiciously  spread  over  the  years  of  school  and  college 
training ;  a  certain  number  of  them  in  each  successive 
year  for  every  student.  They  should  advance  with  the  age 
and  progress  of  the  student.  They  should  follow  one 
after  another  in  logical  order  from  the  more  elementary 
to  the  higher,  which  presuppose  the  lower.  Thus  Mathe- 
matics should  come  before  Physics,  and  Biology  before 
Geology,  and  Psychology  before  Logic  and  Ethics. 

Education  is  essentially  the  training  of  the  mind — as  the 
word  educare  denotes — the  drawing  forth  of  the  faculties 
which  God  has  given  us.  This  it  should  especially  be  in  a 
University,  in  a  Studlum  Generate^  as  it  used  to  be  called. 
The  powers  of  mind  are  numerous  and  varied,  the  senses, 
the  memory,  the  fancy,  judgment,  reasoning,  conscience, 
the  feelings,  the  will ;  the  mathematical,  the  metaphysical, 
the  mechanical,  the  poetical,   the  prosaic  (quite  as  useful 


IN   COLLEGE   EDUCATION-.  9 

as  any) ;  and  all  these  should  be  cultivated,  the  studies 
necessary  to  do  so  should  be  provided,  and  the  student 
required  so  far  to  attend  to  them,  that  the  young  man  by 
exercise  may  know  what  powers  he  has  and  the  mental 
frame  be  fully  developed.  To  accomplish  this  end  the 
degrees  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  and  of  Master  of  Arts  were  in- 
stituted. These  titles  have  acquired  a  meaning.  For  cen- 
turies past  tens  of  thousands  of  eager  youths  have  been 
3"earlv  seeking  for  them  and  the  attainments  implied  in 
them.  True,  the  standard  adopted  in  some  colleges  has 
been  low — some  who  have  got  the  diploma  could  not  read 
the  Latin  in  which  it  is  written  ;  still  it  has  a  certain  pres- 
tige and  a  considerable  attractive  power.  It  indicates,  as 
to  the  great  body  of  those  who  possess  it,  that  they  have 
some  acquaintance  with  elevated  themes,  that  in  short  they 
have  some  culture.  I  do  not  wish  to  have  this  stimulus 
withdrawn.  I  have  been  laboring  for  the  last  thirty-two 
years  to  elevate  the  requirements  for  the  degree.  But  let 
it  retain  its  meaning  and  cai'ry  out  its  meaning  thoroughly. 
Let  it  be  an  evidence  that  the  possessor  of  it  has  some 
knowledge  of  literature,  science,  and  philosophy. 

I  have  no  objection  that  other  degrees  be  instituted, 
such  as  Bachelor  of  Literature,  Bachelor  of  Science,  but 
only  on  one  condition,  that  examinations  be  deep,  that  they 
be  rigid,  that  they  imply  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  as 
well  as  of  the  details  of  the  branches  taught,  that  they  cul- 
tivate the  mind  and  elevate  the  tastes  as  well  as  fit  men 
for  professions.  But  let  us  retain  in  the  meanwhile  the  old 
Bachelor  and  Master  Degrees,  only  putting  a  new  life  into 
them.  They  should  not  be  given  to  one  who  knows  merely 
English  and  German,  or  one  who  knows  merely  chemistry 
and  physics,  still  less  to  one  who  knows  merelj^  music  and 
painting.  Eminence  in  these  has  no  right  to  assume,  or 
in  fact  steal,  the  old  title.     Let  each  kind  of  degree  have 


10  THE   NEW   DEPARTURE 

its  own  meaning  and  people  will  value  it  accordingly.  But 
let  A.B.  and  A.M.  abide  to  attract  youths  to  high  general 
scholarship. 

Under  this  Academic  Degree  I  would  allow  a  certain 
amount  of  choice  of  studies,  such  as  could  not  be  tolerated 
in  professional  departments,  as  Law  or  Medicine.  But 
there  are  branches  which  no  candidate  for  the  dei^ree 
should  be  allowed  to  avoid.  There  should  be  English, 
which  I  agree  with  President  Eliot  in  regarding  as  about 
the  most  essential  of  all  branches,  it  being  taught  in  a 
scientific  manner.  There  should  be  Modern  Languages, 
but  there  should  also  be  Classics.  A  taste  and  a  style  are 
produced  by  the  study  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  with  their 
literatures,  which  are  expressively  called  Classic.  It  may 
be  difficult  to  define,  but  we  all  feel  the  charm  of  it.  If 
we  lose  this  there  is  nothing  in  what  is  called  our  Modern 
Education  to  make  up  for  the  loss.  President  Eliot  has 
a  high  opinion  of  German  Universities,  but  the  eminent 
men  in  their  greatest  University,  that  of  Berlin,  have  testi- 
fied that  a  far  higher  training  is  given  in  the  Classical 
Gymnasia  than  in  the  scientific  Real  Schule.' 

There  should  be  physical  science,  but  there  should  also 
be  mental  and  moral  science  required  of  all.  In  knowing 
other  things  our  young  men  should  be  taught  to  know 
themselves.  "When  our  students  are  instructed  only  in 
matter  they  are  apt  to  conclude  that  there  is  nothing  but 
matter.  Our  colleges  should  save  our  promising  youths, 
the  hope  of  the  coming  age  and  ages,  from  materialism 

'  Professor  Hoffmann,  as  Rector  of  Berlin  University,  saj^s  that  it  is  tlie 
opinion  of  tlie  University  tliat  "all  efforts  to  find  a  substitute  for  tlie  classi- 
cal languages,  whether  in  matliematics,  in  the  modern  languages  or  in  tlie 
natural  sciences,  have  been  hitlierto  unsuccessful."  In  Princeton  College 
Dr.  Young  and  the  scientific  professors  unanimously  are,  if  possible,  more 
strongly  in  favor  of  Latin  and  Greek  than  even  the  classical  professors. 


IN   COLLEGE   EDUCATION".  11 

with  its  degrading  consequences.  We  must  show  them 
that  man  has  a  soul  with  lofty  powers  of  reason  and  con- 
science and  free  will,  which  make  him  immortal  and  en- 
able liim  so  far  to  penetrate  the  secrets  of  nature,  and  by 
Mhich  he  can  rise  to  the  knowledge  of  God. 

We  in  Princeton  believe  in  a  Trinity  of  studies :  in 
Language  and  Literature,  in  Science,  and  in  Philosophy. 
Every  educated  man  should  know  so  much  of  each  of 
these.  Without  this,  man's  varied  faculties  are  not  trained, 
liis  nature  is  not  fully  developed  and  may  become  mal- 
formed. 

A  college  should  give  what  is  best  to  its  students,  and 
it  should  not  tempt  them  to  what  is  lower  when  the  higher 
can  be  had.  Harvard  boasts  that  it  gives  two  hundred 
choices  to  its  students,  younger  and  older.'  I  confess  that 
I  have  had  some  difficulty  in  understandhig  her  catalogue. 
I  would  rather  study  the  Mdiole  Cosmos.  It  has  a  great 
many  perplexities,  which  1  can  compare  only  to  the 
cycles,  epicycles,  eccentricities  of  the  old  astronomy,  so 
much  more  complex  than  that  of  Newton.    An  examina- 

'  In  Princeton  we  have  nearly  all  the  branches  tanght  in  Harvard,  but 
■we  do  not  subdivide  and  scatter  them  as  they  do  ;  we  put  them  under 
compacted  heads.  In  his  address  to  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Dr. 
Eliot  refers  to  the  supposed  deficiency  in  teaching  history  in  Princeton. 
In  reply  I  have  to  state  that  we  have  a  small  examination  on  the  sub- 
ject for  entrance  ;  that  in  the  Sophomore  year  we  use  one  of  Freeman's 
text-books  to  give  an  elementary  view  of  universal  history ;  that  in  the 
Junior  and  Senior  the  Professor  of  the  Philosophy  of  History  gives  a 
historical  and  critical  survey  of  the  science  and  methods  of  history. 
More  particularly  each  Professor  is  expected  to  give  a  history  of  his  own 
branch,  and  so  we  have  histories  of  Politics,  of  Philosophy,  of  Greece, 
of  Rome,  of  the  literature  of  Germany  and  of  France,  etc.  I  do  not 
agree  with  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  that  history  cannot  be  taught  in  a  college  (it 
woiild  take  forty  years  and  more  to  go  over  all  history)  ;  but  I  think  the 
numerous  narrative  histories  of  epochs  is  just  a  let-ofE  to  easy-going 
students  from  the  studies  which  require  thought. 


12  THE   NEW   DEPARTURE 

tion  of  students  upon  it  would  be  a  better  test  of  a  clear 
liead  than  some  of  their  subjects,  such  as  "  French  Plays 
and  Novels."  As  I  understand  it,  one  seeking  a  degree, 
niaj,  in  his  free  will  choose  the  following  course  : 

In  SojpJiomore  Year — 

1.  French  Literature  of  the  Seventeenth  Century. 

2.  Mediaeval  and  Modern  European  History. 

3.  Elementary  Course  in  Fine  Art,  with  collateral  in- 
struction in  Water-coloring. 

4.  Counterpoint  (in  music). 

In.  Junior  Year — 

1.  French  Literature  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

2.  Early  Mediaeval  History. 

5.  Botany. 

4.  History  of  Music. 

In  Senior  Year — 

1.  French  Literature  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

2.  Elementary  Spanish. 

3.  Greek  Art. 

4.  Free  Thematic  Music' 

Tiiere  are  twenty  such  dilettanti  courses  which  may  be 
taken  in  Harvard.  I  cannot  allow  that  this  is  an  advance 
in  scholarship.  If  this  be  the  modern  education,  I  hold 
that  the  old  is  better.  I  would  rather  send  a  young 
man,  in  whom  I  was  interested,  to  one  of  the  old-fashioned 
colleges  of  the  country,  where  he  would  be  constrained  to 
study  Latin,  Greek,  Mathematics,  Ilhetoric,  Physics,  Logic, 
Ethics,  and  Political  Econonw,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  his 
mind  would  thereby  be  better  trained  and  he  himself  pre- 
pared to  do  higher  and  more  important  work  in  life.     From 

'  In  the  debate  we  were  told  that  this  is  a  deep  study  ;  then  the  De- 
gree of  Master  ot  Music  (M.M.)  should  be  given  to  it,  but  not  M.A. 


IN    COLLEGE   EDUCATION.  13 

the  close  of  Freshman  year  on  it  is  perfectly  practicable  for  a 
student  to  pass  through  Ilai'vard  and  receive  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts,  without  taking  any  course  in  Latin, 
Greek,  Mathematics,  Chemistry,  Physics,  Astronomy,  Geol- 
ogy, Logic,  Psychology,  Ethics,  Political  Economy,  Ger- 
man, or  even  English  !  (If,  as  President  Eliot  insists,  a 
knowledge  of  our  mother-tongue  is  the  true  basis  of  cult- 
ure, what  is  to  be  said  of  this  ?) 

Secondly.  It  should  he  an  essential  fecdure  of  the  course 
for  a  degree^  that  the  attendance  of  the  student  on  lectures 
and  recitations  shoidd  he  ohlvjatory.  This  is  a  very  im- 
portant matter.  The  student  may  have  freedom  in  his 
choice,  but  having  made  his  election  he  should  be  bound 
to  attend  on  the  instruction  imparted.  lie  should  not  be 
allowed  to  attend  the  one  day  and  stay  away  the  next.  A 
professor  should  not  be  subjected  to  the  disadvantage  of 
only  a  portion  of  his  students,  say  a  half  or  a  third,  being 
present  at  any  one  lecture,  and  of  the  students  who  attend 
not  being  the  same  continuously.  Parents  living  far  away 
from  the  college-seat  should  have  some  security  that  their 
Bons  professing  to  be  at  college  are  not  all  the  winter  skat- 
ing on  the  ice,  or  shooting  canvasback-ducks  on  Chesa- 
peake Bay. 

But  it  is  said  that  if  a  student  can  stand  an  examination, 
it  is  no  matter  where  he  gets  his  knowledge.  There  is  an 
enormous  fallacy  lurking  here.  I  admit  that  a  youth  may 
make  himself  a  scholar  without  being  at  a  college  or  sub- 
mitting to  its  examinations.  But  if  he  goes  to  college  let 
him  take  all  its  advantages.  One  of  these  is  to  be  placed 
under  a  continuous  course  of  instruction  in  weekly,  almost 
dail}',  intercourse  with  his  professors,  keeping  him  at  his 
work  and  encouraging  him  in  it.  It  is  thus  that  the  aca- 
demic taste,  thus  that  the  student  spirit  with  its  hard  work 
is  created  and  fostered. 


14  THE   NEW   DEPARTUiiE 

I  have  had  thorough  means  of  becoming  acquainted 
with  those  systems  in  which  there  is  no  required  attend- 
ance ;  and  I  testify  that  they  do  not  tend  to  train  high 
scholars.  Everything  depending  on  a  final  examination, 
the  student  is  sure  to  be  tempted  to  what  is  called  crani' 
7)%ing.  A  student  once  told  me  what  this  led  to  in  his  own 
experience.  In  five  of  the  branches  taught  to  his  class, 
he  spread  his  daily  studies  over  the  year ;  but  in  one  he 
trusted  to  cramming.  I  said  to  him,  "  Tell  me  honestly 
what  is  the  issue."  He  answered,  "  In  the  five  branches  I 
remember  everything  and  could  stand  another  examina- 
tion to-day,  but  in  the  one — it  happened  to  be  botany — 
it  is  only  four  weeks  since  I  was  examined  on  it,  but  my 
mind  is  a  blank  on  the  whole  subject." 

I  know  that  in  Germany  they  produce  scholars  without 
requiring  a  rigid  attendance,  and  I  rather  think  that  in  a 
few  American  colleges,  they  a  re  aping  this  German  method, 
thinking  to  produce  equally  diligent  students.  They  for- 
get that  the  Germans  have  one  powerful  safeguard  which 
we  have  not  in  America.  For  all  ofiices  in  Church  and 
State  there  is  an  examination  by  high  scholars  following 
the  college  course.  A  young  man  cannot  get  an  ofiice  as 
clergyman,  as  teacher,  as  postmaster,  till  he  is  passed  by 
that  terrible  examinhig  bureau,  and  if  he  is  turned  by  them 
his  prospects  in  life  are  blasted.'  Let  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts pass  a  law  like  the  Prussian,  and  Harvard  may 
then  relax  attendance,  and  the  State  will  do  what  the  col- 
leses  have  neo-lected  to  do.'' 


'  The  Germans  have,  besides,  their  admirable  gymiiasien,  ■;\'here  all 
is  prescribed,  and  which  give  instruction  equivalent  to  that  of  the 
Freshman  and  Sophomore  years  in  American  colleges. 

^  President  Eliot  would  not  have  students  enter  college  till  they  are 
eighteen  years  of  age.  If  this  be  carried  out  it  is  evident  that  we  shall 
have  fewer  young  men  taking  a  college  education.      A  large  number 


IN   COLLEGE   EDUCATION.  15 


II. 

Specialties  in  Study. — Men  have  special  talents,  and  so 
they  should  have  special  studies  provided  for  them.  They 
are  to  have  special  vocations  in  life,  and  college  youtli 
should  so  far  be  prepared  for  them.  Every  student  should 
have  Obligatory  studies,  but  he  should  also  be  allowed 
Elective  studies.  The  branches  of  knowledge  are  now  so 
numerous  and  literature  is  so  wide  and  varied,  that  no  one 
can  master  it  all ;  should  he  try  to  do  so,  lie  would  only  be 
"  a  jack  of  all  trades  and  a  master  of  none." 

The  student  should  have  two  kinds  of  electives  provided 
for  him.  He  may  be  allowed  to  take  subjects  which  could 
not  be  required  of  all,  such,  for  example,  as  Sanscrit,  Anglo- 
Saxon,  the  Semitic  Tongues,  and  in  science,  Histology  and 
Physical  Geography.  Ko  college  should  make  these  ob- 
ligatory, and  yet  considerable  numbers  of  students  would 
prize  them  much  and  get  great  benefit  from  them,  to  fit 
them  for  their  farther  study  and  life-work.  Or,  the  stu- 
dent, after  taking  certain  elementary  branches,  should  have 
liigher  forms  of  the  same  provided  for  him,  and  be  encour- 
aged to  take  them.  Of  all  the  rudimentary  branches  or 
cai'dinal  studies,  there  should  be  a  course  or  courses  re- 
quired of  all  in  order  to  make  them  educated  gentlemen, 

cannot  afiord  to  continue  till  twenty-five  before  they  earn  an}-^  money; 
not  entering  college  till  eighteen,  continuing  three  or  four  years  and 
spending  other  three  years  in  learning  a  profession.  In  many  cases  many 
young  men  might  be  ready  to  enter  college  at  sixteen,  graduate  at  twenty, 
and  then  learn  their  professions.  This  would  suit  the  great  body  of 
students.  But  one  in  ten,  or  one  in  five  who  have  acquired  a  taste  for 
more  slionld  be  encouraged  to  remain  in  college,  to  take  post-graduate 
courses,  and  devote  themselves  to  special  studies.  AVe  encourage  this 
in  Princeton  by  seven  or  eiglit  endowed  Fellowships,  and  have  always  30, 
40,  or  50  post-graduate  students.     In  this  way  we  hope  to  rear  scholars. 


16  THE  NEW   DEPARTURE 

but  there  should  be  advanced  courses — Electives,  to  produce 
liigh  scholars  in  all  branches,  literary,  linguistic,  scientific, 
philosophic.  All  students  should  know  several  of  the 
highest  languages,  ancient  and  modern,  but  there  should 
be  advanced  linguistic  studies,  and  especially  a  science  of 
Comparative  Language.  I  defy  you  to  make  all  master 
Quaternions,  or  Quantics,  or  Functions,  but  these  should 
be  in  the  college  for  a  select  few.  All  should  be  taught 
the  fundamental  laws  of  the  human  mind,  but  there  should 
also  be  a  number  entering  into  the  depths  and  climbing 
the  heights,  of  the  Greek,  the  Scotch,  and  the  German 
philosophies. 

I  hold  that  in  a  college  \vith  the  variety  there  should  be 
a  unity.  The  circle  of  the  sciences  should  have  a  wide 
circumference  but  also  a  fixed  centre.  In  every  year  there 
should  be  certain  primary  and  radical  studies  required  of 
every  student,  with  all  the  while  a  diversity  in  his  elec- 
tives.  This  I  take  the  liberty  of  saying  is  the  difference 
between  Harvard  and  Princeton.  In  Harvard  there  are  now 
in  no  year  any  studies  obligatory  on  all  except  a  part  of 
Freshman  year  studies — everything  is  scattered  like  the 
star  dust  out  of  which  worlds  are  formed.  Greek  is  not 
obligatory ;  Matheuiatics  are  not  obligatory ;  Logic  and 
Ethics  are  not  obligatory.  In  Princeton  a  number  of 
disciplinary  branches  are  required,  and  so  many  are  re- 
quired in  each  year  to  give  us  a  central  sun  with  rotating 
planets.  In  Nature,  as  Herbert  Spencer  has  shown,  there 
is  differentiation  which  scatters,  but  there  is  also  concen- 
tration which  holds  things  together.  There  should  be  the 
same  in  higher  education.  In  a  college  there  may  be, 
there  should  be  specialists,  but  not  mere  specialists,  who 
are  sure  to  be  narrow,  partial,  malformed,  one-sided,  and 
are  apt  to  become  conceited,  prejudiced,  and  intolerant. 
The  other  day  a  gymnast  showed  me  his  upper  arm  with. 


IX    COLLEGE   EDUCATIOX.  17 

the  muscle  large  and  hard  as  a  mill-stone.  It  is  a  picture 
of  the  mental  monstrosities  produced  by  certain  kinds  of 
education.  The  tanner  insists  that  "there  is  nothing  like 
leathei-,"  and  the  I'derateur,  that  there  is  nothing  like  lan- 
guage ;  while  the  mathematician  assures  you  that  there  is 
nothing  to  be  believed  except  what  can  be  demonstrated  ; 
leading  Goethe  to  say,  "  As  if,  forsooth,  things  only  exist 
when  they  can  be  mathematically  demonstrated.  It  would  be 
foolish  in  a  man  not  to  believe  in  his  mistress'  love  because 
she  could  not  prove  it  to  him  mathematically ;  she  can 
mathematically  prove  her  dowry  but  not  her  love." 

Dr.  Eliot  tells  us  he  has  found  great  difficulties  in  com- 
bining the  Prescribed  and  the  Elective  Courses.  In  my 
thirty-two  years'  college  teaching  I  have  met  with  no  such 
difficulty.  On  the  contrary  I  have  found  them  working 
in  harmony.  Thus  I  have  found  the  Prescribed  study  in 
Greek  helping  me  in  the  Elective  History  of  Philosophy.' 

It  is  now  shown  that  all  science  is  correlated,  and  every 
one  thing  depends  on  every  other.  Humboldt  had  his 
"  Cosmos,"  and  Mr.  Grove  his  "  Correlation  of  the  Forces," 
and  the  Duke  of  Argyll  has  his  "  Unity  of  ISTature." 
Kature  is  a  system  like  the  solar,  with  a  sun  in  the  cen- 
tre and  planets  and  satellites  all  around,  held  together  by 
a  gravitating  power  which  keeps  each  in  its  proper  place, 
and  all  shining  on  each  other.  You  cannot  study  any  one 
part  comprehensively  without  so  far  knowing  the  others. 
In  like  manner,  all  the  parts  of  a  good  college  curriculum 
should  be  connected  in  an  organic  whole.  Make  a  man  a 
mere  specialist  and  the  chance  is  he  will  not  reach  the 
highest  eminence  as  a  specialist.  The  youth  most  likely 
to  make  discoveries  is  one  who  has  studied  collateral  sub- 

'  At  the  New  York  meeting  I  distributed  the  Plan  of  Study  in  Prince- 
ton, College,  s\iov/'n\'j,  how  we  carry  into  practical  operation  the  principles 
laid  down  in  this  paper  and  combine  the  general  with  the  special. 


18  THE   NEW    DEPAllTUEE 

jects  ;  tlie  '^'gII  gushes  out  at  a  certaiu  point  because  the 
rains  liave  descended  on  a  large  surface  and  entered  the 
earth,  and  must  find  an  outlet. 

1  may  here  point  out  the  evils  little  noticed  arising  from 
a  boy  having  too  many  choices  ;  they  say  two  hundred  in 
Harvard.  I  believe  that  comparatively  few  young  men 
know  what  their  powers  are  when  they  enter  college. 
Many  do  not  yet  know  what  their  undeveloped  faculties 
are  ;  quite  as  many  imagine  that  they  have  talents  which 
they  do  not  possess.  Fatal  mistakes  may  arise  from  a 
youth  of  sixteen  or  eighteen  committing  himself  to  a  nar- 
row-gauge line  of  study,  and  he  finds  when  it  is  too  late 
that  he  should  have  taken  a  broader  road. 

A  young  man,  we  may  suppose,  when  he  enters  college 
leaves  out  Greek,  attracted  by  a  popular  teacher  of  French. 
When  he  has  done  so  he  finds,  as  he  comes  to  Junior  year, 
that  a  voice,  as  it  were,  from  God,  calls  him  to  preach  the 
gospel  of  salvation.  Then  he  comes  to  see  his  mistake, 
for  if  he  has  to  be  an  expounder  of  Scripture,  he  must 
know  the  language  of  the  Kew  Testament,  and  to  attain 
this  he  must  go  back  two  or  three  years  to  school,  and,  un- 
Avilling  to  do  this,  he  gives  up  studying  for  the  ministry. 
The  Churches  of  Christ  will  do  well  to  look  to  this  new 
departure,  for  they  may  find  that  they  have  fewer  candi- 
dates for  the  office  of  the  ministr3\  The  Colleges  may 
have  to  look  to  this,  for  the  churches  furnish  to  them  the 
most  constant  supply  of  students.  For  myself,  I  fear  that 
the  issue  M'ill  be  an  unfortunate  division  of  colleges  into 
Christian  and  infidel. 

Alike  result  may  follow  from  other  unfortunate  choices, 
as  we  say,  from  young  men  "  mistaking  their  trade."  One 
M'ho  might  have  turned  out  a  splendid  teacher  devotes 
himself  to  metaphysics  and  neglects  classics  and  mathe- 
matics.     Another   who  miojht  have  become  a  statesman 


IN"    COLLEGE    EDUCATION".  19 

lias  avoided  logic  and  political  economy,  being  allured  by 
music  and  plays.  The  boy  has  turned  away  from  mathe- 
matics to  find  that  in  his  future  study  and  professional 
work  he  absolutely  needs  them. 


III. 

Self  Goverivnient. — 1  hold  that  in  a  college,  as  in  a  coun- 
try, there  should  be  government ;  there  should  be  care 
over  the  students,  with  inducements  to  good  conduct,  and 
temptations  removed,  and  restraints  on  vice.  There  should 
be  moral  teaching  ;  I  believe  also  religious  teaching — the 
rights  of  conscience  being  always  carefully  preserved.  But 
one  part  of  this  instruction  should  be  to  inculcate  indepen- 
dence, independence  in  thinking,  independence  in  action 
and  self-control.  The  student  should  be  taught  to  think 
for  himself,  to  act  for  himself.  If  he  does  not  acquire  this 
s])irit,  no  external  authority  will  be  able  to  guide  and  re- 
strain him.  I  abhor  the  plan  of  secretly  watching  students, 
of  peeping  through  windows  at  night,  and  listening  through 
key-holes.  Under  the  s/?y  system,  the  students  will  always 
beat  their  tutors.  The  tricky  fellows  will  escape,  while  only 
the  simple  will  be  caught. 

But  is  there,  therefore,  to  be  no  moral  teaching,  no  i-e- 
straint  on  conduct  ?  Ai-e  students  to  be  allured  away  from 
their  homes,  hundreds  and  thousands  of  miles  away,  from 
California,  Oregon,  and  Florida,  to  our  Eastern  colleges, 
and  there  do  as  they  please — to  spend  their  evenings  ac- 
cording to  their  inclinations,  to  keep  no  Sabbaths,  and  all 
the  while  get  no  advice,  no  warning  from  the  college  au- 
thorities ?  They  see  a  student  going  into  a  liquor  store,  a 
dancing  saloon,  a  low  theatre,  a  gambling-house.  Are  they 
to  do  nothing  ?     Are  they  precluded  from  doing  anything  ? 


20  THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

A  student  is  seen  drunk.  What  are  you  to  do  witli  liim  ? 
"  The  law  is  not  made  for  the  righteous  man,  but  for  the 
lawless  and  disobedient."  Have  you  no  law  to  reach  him  ? 
You  have  no  right  to  discipline  him.  It  is  an  interference 
with  his  freedom,  lie  is  a  man,  and  not  a  bo}',  and  he 
should  resent  it.  He  is  able  to  guide  himself.  His  wid- 
owed mother  lives  a  thousand  miles  away,  and  cannot  reach 
him.  He  continues  in  this  course.  Are  you  to  allow  him 
to  remain  in  the  institution  to  ruin  himself  and  corrupt 
others  ?  You  answer,  we  will  send  him  away.  But  you 
cannot  do  so  (so  I  hope)  without  evidence,  and  this  im- 
plies that  horrid  thing,  discipline.  But  you  dismiss  him. 
I  have  been  obliged  to  dismiss  students  on  rare  occasions. 
It  is  a  terrible  ordeal  to  me.  I  have  sometimes  felt  more 
than  the  student  himself.  And  when  the  father  comes  to 
me,  the  father  trjang  to  suppress  tlie  bursting  feeling,  and 
the  mother  in  agony  which  cannot  be  restrained,  I  am 
crushed,  I  am  prostrated.  But  my  creed  is,  prevention  is 
better  than  punishment.  Surely,  if  we  have  the  right  to 
dismiss  and  expel  (I  never  expelled  a  student),  we  have 
the  liberty  to  instruct,  to  advise,  to  remonstrate,  nay,  to 
discipline.  I  have  some  painful  scenes  to  pass  through  in 
the  government  of  a  college,  but  I  have  had  more  pleasant 
ones.  I  have  to  testify  that  three-fourths,  I  believe  nine- 
tentlis,  of  the  cases  of  discipline  I  have  administered  have 
ended  in  the  reformation  of  the  offender.  I  have  been 
gratified  by  many  fathers  and  mothers  thanking  me  for 
saving  their  sons  from  ruin.  Scores  of  graduates,  when 
they  meet  me,  have  said,  "I  thank  you  for  that  sharp 
rebuke  you  gave  me  ;  you  gave  it  heartily,  and  I  was  irri- 
tated at  the  time,  but  now  I  thank  you  as  heartily,  for  I 
was  arrested  thereby  when  rushing  into  folly." 

It  is  time  that  fathers  and  mothers  should  know  what 
it  is  proposed  to  do  with  their  sons  at  college.     The  college 


IN   COLLEGE   EDUCATION".  21 

authorities  are  in  no  way  to  interfere  with  tliem.  They 
are  to  teach  them  Music  and  Art,  and  French  Plays  and 
Novels,  but  there  is  no  course  in  the  Sci'iptures — in  their 
poetry,  their  morality,  their  spirituality.  The  President 
of  Harvard  recommends  that  all  colleges  should  be  in  great 
cities.  Students  are  to  be  placed  in  the  midst  of  saloons, 
and  gambling-houses,  and  temples  of  Venus,  but  mean- 
while no  officer  of  the  college  is  to  preach  to  them,  to  deal 
with  them.  Suppose  that  under  temptation  the  son  falls. 
I  can  conceive  a  father  saying  to  the  head  of  the  institu- 
tion, "  I  sent  my  son  to  you  believing  that  man  is  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  you  taught  him  that  he  is  an  upper 
brute,  and  he  has  certainly  become  so  ;  I  sent  him  to  you 
pure,  and  last  night  he  was  carried  to  my  door  drunk. 
Curse  ye  this  college ;  '  curse  ye  bittei'ly,'  for  you  took 
no  pains  to  allure  him  to  good,  to  admonish,  to  pray  for 
him."  I  was  once  addressed  by  a  mother  in  very  nearly 
these  words.  1  was  able  to  show  that  her  son  liad  come  to 
us  a  polluted  boy  from  an  ungodly  school,  and  that  we  had 
dealt  with  him  kindly,  warned  him  solemnly,  disciplined 
him,  given  notice  of  his  conduct  to  his  mother,  and  prayed 
for  him.  Had  I  not  been  able  to  say  this  conscientiously 
I  believe  I  would  that  day  have  given  in  my  resignation  of 
the  office  I  hold,  and  retired  to  a  wilderness  to  take  charge 
of  myself,  feeling  that  I  was  not  competent  to  take  care  of 
others. 

It  is  a  serious  matter  what  we  are  to  do  to  provide  re- 
ligious studies  in  our  colleges.  Professor  Huxley  knows 
that  there  is  little  or  nothing  in  our  ordinary  school 
books  to  mould  and  form  the  character  of  children,  and 
so,  as  member  of  the  London  School  Board,  lie  votes  for 
the  readiiig  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  schools,  not  that  he 
believes  them,  but  because  they  are  fitted  to  sway  the 
mind, — which  I  remark  they  are  able  to  do,  because  they 


22  THE   KEW    DEPARTURE 

are  divine.  Evervbody  knows  that  science  alone  is  not  fit 
to  form  or  gnard  moralitj^;  and  Herbert  Spencer  is  very- 
anxious  about  this  transition  period,  when  the  old  has 
passed  away  (so  he  thinks)  and  the  new  morality  is  not  yet 
published.  Emerson  stood  up  manfully  for  the  retention 
of  prayers  in  Harvard  University.  Are  we  now  in  our 
colleges  to  give  up  preaching  ?  to  give  up  Bible  instruc- 
tion ?  to  give  up  praj'ers  ?  But  1  am  on  the  borders  of 
the  religious  question,  on  which  I  now  formally  propose 
that  Tills  cliib  sJiould  have  another  meeting^  in  tchich  Pres- 
ident Eliot  will  defend  the  new  dejjarture  in  the  religion 
of  colleges,  and  I  engage  tvith  God's  help  to  meet  him.^ 

In  closing,  I  have  to  confess  that  I  regard  this  new  de- 
parture with  deep  anxiety.  The  scholarship  of  America 
is  not  yet  equal  to  that  of  Germany  or  Great  Britain. 
Some  of  us  are  anxious  to  raise  it  up  to  the  standard  of 
Europe.  We  are  discouraged  by  this  plan  of  Harvard  to 
allow  and  encourage  its  students  to  take  branches  in  which 
there  is  so  little  to  promote  liigli  intellectual  culture.  We 
know  what  a  galaxy  of  great  men  appeared  in  Harvard  an 
age  ago,  under  the  old  training.  I  know  that  it  is  keenly 
discussed,  within  the  college  itself,  whether  there  is  any- 
thing in  the  present  and  coming  modes  of  dissipated  in- 
struction to  rear  men  of  the  like  intellectual  calibres.  Has 
there  been  of  late  any  great  poem,  any  great  scientific  dis- 
covery, any  great  history,  any  great  philosophic  work,  by 
the  young  men  of  Cambridge  ?  I  observe  that  the  literary 
journals,  for  which  our  young  writers  prepare  articles,  have 
now  fixed  their  seat  in  New  York  rather  than  Boston. 

The  wise  leaders  of  the  new  departure  do  not  propose  to 
fight  against  religion.  They  do  not  fight  with  it,  but  they 
are  quite  willing  to  let  it  die  out,  to  die  in  dignity.     They 


'  I  am  waiting  to  hear  whether  tliia  challenge  ia  accepted. 


IX   COLLEGE   EDUCATIOJSr.  23 

liave  put  severe  learning  on  a  sliding  scale,  not  it  may  be  in 
order  to  a  sudden  fall,  but  insensibly  to  go  down  to  the  level 
of  those  boys  who  do  not  wish  to  think  deeply  or  study 
hard.  I  am  glad  things  have  come  to  a  crisis.  Let  par- 
ents know  it,  let  the  churches  know  it,  let  all  America 
know  it,  let  scholars  in  Europe  know  it,  let  the  world 
know  it — for  what  is  done  in  Harvard  has  influence  over 
the  w^orld.  But  some  timid  people  will  say,  "  Tell  it  not 
in  the  lands  whence  our  pious  fathers  came  that  the  col- 
lege whose  motto  is  Pro  Christo  et  Ecclesia  teaches  no 
religion  to  its  pupils.  Tell  it  not  in  Berlin  or  Oxford  that 
the  once  most  illustrious  university  in  America  no  longer 
]'equircs  its  graduates  to  know  the  most  perfect  language, 
the  grandest  literature,  the  most  elevated  thinking  of  all 
antiquity.  Tell  it  not  in  Paris,  tell  it  not  in  Cambridge 
in  England,  tell  it  not  in  Dublin,  that  Cambridge  in 
America  does  not  make  mathematics  obligatory  on  its  stu- 
dents. Let  not  Edinburgh  and  Scotland  and  the  Puritans 
in  England  know  that  a  student  may  pass  through  the 
once  Puritan  College  of  America  without  having  taken  a 
single  class  of  philosophy  or  a  lesson  in  religion.  But 
whatever  others  may  do,  I  say,  I  say,  let  Europe  know  in 
all  its  universities — I  wish  my  voice  could  reach  them  all 
— that  in  a  distinguished  college  in  America  a  graduate 
need  no  longer  take  what  the  ages  have  esteemed  the 
highest  department  of  learning ;  and  I  believe  that  such 
an  expression  of  feeling  w^iil  be  called  forth,  that  if  we 
cannot  avert  the  evil  in  Harvard  we  may  arrest  it  in 
the  other  colleges  of  the  country. 


The    Emotions, 


BV 


JAMES  McCOSH,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

President  of  Princeton   College. 


One  Volume,  crown  8vo.,  _        _        _        $2.00 

In  this  little  volume  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  clearly  printed  page* 
Dr.  McCosh  treats  first  of  the  elements  of  emotion,  and,  secondly,  of  the 
classification  and  description  of  the  emotions.  He  has  been  led  to  the 
consideration  of  his  theme,  as  he  says  in  his  preface,  by  the  vagueness  and 
ambiguity  in  common  thought  and  literature  in  connection  with  the  subject, 
and  by  "  the  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  prevailing  physiological  psychol- 
ogy of  the  day  to  resolve  all  feeling  and  our  very  emotions  into  nervous 
action,  and  thus  gain  an  important  province  of  our  nature  to  materialism." 
The  v^rork  is  characterized  by  that  "  peculiarly  animated  and  commanding 
style  which  seems  to  be  a  part  of  the  author." 


ORITICAIi    NOTICES. 

"  Dr.  McCosh's  style  is  as  lucid,  vigorous,  and  often  brautiful  as  of  old.  There 
is  never  any  doubt  as  to  his  meaning,  nor  any  hesitation  in  his  utteiance," — Loudon 
Academy. 

"  It  would  be  well  if  all  who  have  it  as  their  business  to  influence  the  character  of 
men  would  study  such  a  work  as  this  on  the  Emotions." — Examiner  and  Chronicle. 

"We  recommend  it  to  all  students  as  a  perspicuous  and  graceful  contribution  to 
what  has  always  proved  to  be  the  most  popular  part  of  mental  philosophy." — The  N.  Y. 
Evangelist. 

"  The  work  is  marked  by  great  clearness  of  statement  and  profound  scholarship — two 
things  which  are  not  always  combmed.  ...  It  will  prove  attractive  and  instructive 
to  any  intelligent  reader." — Albany  Evening  Journal. 

"The  analysis  is  clear  and  the  style  of  crj-stalline  clearness.  We  are  inclined  to 
think  it  will  be  the  most  popular  of  the  author's  works.  We  have  read  it  from  beginning 
to  end  with  intense  enjoyment — with  as  much  interest,  indeed,  as  could  attach  to  any 
work  of  fiction." — The  Fresbyteriati. 

"  The  whole  subject  of  the  volume  is  treated  by  Dr.  McCosh  in  a  common  sense  way, 
with  large  reference  to  its  practical  applications,  aiming  at  clearness  of  expression  and 
aotness  of  illustration,  rather  than  with  any  show  of  metaphysical  acuteness  or  technical 
nicely,  and  often  with  uncommon  beauty  and  force  of  diction." — A^.  Y.  Tribune. 

"Apart  from  the  comprehension  of  the  entire  argument,  any  chapter  and  almost 
every  section  will  prove  a  quickening  and  nourishing  portion  to  many  who  will  ponder 
it.  It  will  be  a  liberal  feeder  of  pastors  and  preachers  who  turn  to  it.  The  almost 
prodical  outlay  of  illustrations  to  be  found  from  first  to  finis,  will  fascuiate  the  reader  ii 
nothin.;  else  does." — Christian  Intelligencer. 


•^^*  For    sale    by    all    booksellers,  or    sent,    postpaid^    upon    receipt    of 
frice,   by 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS,  Publishers, 

743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


PROGRAMME  OF  A  PHILOSOPHIC  SERIES, 


PART   I. 

jDxiDJ^orrxc 

In  this  part  of  the  Series  the  principal  philosophic  questions  of  th©  ] 
day  are  discussed,  including  the  Tests  of  Truth,  Causation,  Develop- j 
ment,  and  the  Character  of  our  World. 

No,  I.     Criteria  op  Diverse  Kinds  of  Truth. 

N.B. — This  little  volume  might  be  used  as  a  text-book  in  Colleges  andj 
Upper  Schools. 

No.  II.    Energy,  Efficient  and  Final  Cause.    An  attempt  is  | 
here  made  to  clear  up  the  subject  of  Causation  which  has  become  con- 
siderably confused. 

No.  III.  Development,  What  it  can  do  and  What  it  cannot  | 
DO.  Development  is  here  presented  so  as  to  show  that  it  is  not  opposed! 
to  religion,  and  that  the  conclusions  drawn  from  it  by  some  of  its  de- j 
fenders  are  not  legitimate. 

No.  IV.  Certitude,  Providence  and  Prater  with  an  inquiryJ 
as  to  what  is  the  character  of  our  world  showing  that  it  is  neither  J 
optimist  nor  pessimist,  but  going  on  toward  perfection. 

N.B. — There  is  an  impression  that  later  science  and  philosophy  has  set  J 
aside  old  and  fundamental  truths  in  religion  and  philosophy.  It  is  not  80.| 
Some  of  the  old  truths  may  have  to  be  put  in  a  new  form,  and  a  new  linoj 
of  defence  taken  up,  but  the  radical  truths  remain  as  deeply  founded  as  ever.    ' 

PART  II. 

i3:iSTOiaio.A.Xi, 

In  this  part  the  same  questions  are  treated  historically.  The  Bystemsj 
of  the  philosophers  who  have  discussed  them  are  stated  and  examined,! 
and  the  truth  and  error  in  each  of  them  carefully  pointed  out. 

No.  V.  Locke's  Theory  op  Knowledge,  with  a  notice  of  J 
Berkeley.  It  is  shown  that  Locke  held  by  a  body  of  truth,  and  ths^l 
he  has  often  been  misunderstood  ;  but  that  he  has  not  by  his  ezperienoe| 
theory  laid  a  sure  foundation  of  knowledge. 

No.  VI.  Agnosticism  op  Hume  And  Huxley,  with  a  notice  ofS 
the  Scottish  School.  It  is  necessary  to  examine  Hume's  Scepticism,  [ 
but  it  is  best  to  do  so  in  the  defence  of  it  by  Huxley. 

No.  VII.    A  Criticism  of  the  Critical  Philosophy  sbowiof 
that  Kant  has  stated  and  defended  most  important  truths,  but  hi 
undermined  knowledge,  by  making  the  mind  begin  with  appearances 
and  not  with  things. 

No.  VIII.    Herbert  Spencer's  Philosophy  as  culminating 
his  Ethics.     Here  there  will  be  a  careful  examination  of  his  physio-j 
logical  utilitarianism. 

Each,  one  vol.,  12mo,  paper.     Price,  50  cents. 


*»•  NOTICE. — Orders  and  9uliscrii>tlotis  for  the  entire  aerUn  will  be  received  hy 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS,  743  &  745  Broadway,  New  York.  5 


rhotomount 

Pamphlet 

Binder 

Gaylord  Bros.,  Inc. 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.Y. 

Pat.  No.  877188 


DATE  DUE 

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